Adaptive memory system

Abstract

An adaptive, memory system is provided. The adaptive memory system has a number of physical-memory devices and a memory controller that creates and maintains a logical address space to which the physical-memory devices and data-storage allocations are mapped, and through which mapping the memory controller matches static, dynamic, and dynamically-adjustable retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of the physical-memory devices with specified retention and resiliency characteristics specified for the data-storage allocations.

1 . An adaptive memory system comprising:
 a number of physical-memory devices; and   one or more memory controllers that collectively creates and maintains a logical address space to which the physical-memory devices and data-storage allocations are mapped, and through which mapping the memory controller matches static, dynamic, and dynamically-adjustable retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of the physical-memory devices with specified retention and resiliency characteristics specified for the data-storage allocations.   
     
     
         2 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 1  wherein the memory controller is one or more of:
 a discrete hardware component of a computational system; 
 a distributed system component distributed across controllers within physical-memory devices; 
 a component of an operating system; and 
 a system component implemented as stored instructions executed by one or more processors. 
 
     
     
         3 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 1  wherein the memory controller further comprises:
 a physical-device-management layer, which creates and maintains stored information that represents portions of physical-memory devices and a logical address space that spans the physical-memory devices; 
 a data-storage-allocation-management layer, which accesses stored information that represents stored-data-associated entities and data-storage allocations; and 
 a memory-management layer, which distributes and redistributes data-storage allocations across physical memory and dynamically monitors and/or adjusts retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of physical-memory devices. 
 
     
     
         4 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 3  wherein the physical-device-management layer partitions the logical address space into regions, each region associated with static, dynamic, and adjustable characteristics, representations of which are maintained by the adaptive memory system, the static, dynamic, and adjustable characteristics comprising one or more of:
 device attributes; 
 device capacity, retention, endurance, access-time, and power characteristics; 
 and 
 one or more resiliency methods, including references to other resiliency-method-related logical address space regions. 
 
     
     
         5 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 3  wherein the data-storage-allocation-management layer creates and maintains entity-describing information for each of a number of memory-associated entities, including, for each memory-associated entity, an entity identifier, one or more types of data-storage allocation and associated retention and resiliency characteristics for each type of data-storage allocation; and an indication of each data-storage allocation made on behalf of the entity. 
     
     
         6 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 5  wherein the number of memory-associated entities comprises one or more of:
 processes identified by process identifiers; 
 file systems identified by file-system identifiers; 
 users identified by user identifiers; and 
 files identified by pathnames. 
 
     
     
         7 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 3  wherein the memory-management layer maps data-storage allocations to physical memory, comparing static, dynamic, and adjustable characteristics of regions of physical memory with retention and resiliency characteristics specified for the data-storage allocations in order to match the data allocations with regions of physical memory to which data-storage allocations are directed. 
     
     
         8 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 7  wherein the memory-management layer additionally monitors physical memory to update current retention and resilience characteristics of the physical memory and detect failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units. 
     
     
         9 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 8  wherein the memory-management layer ameliorates failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units detected by monitoring physical memory by one or more of:
 re-writing the deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units; 
 changing the retention characteristics associated with the memory cells and data-storage units; 
 adding or changing a resiliency method for the memory cells and data-storage units; and 
 redistributing data stored within the failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units to functional physical memory regions. 
 
     
     
         10 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 8  wherein the memory-management layer, continuously or at regular intervals, monitors physical-memory devices to ensure that data allocations remain consistent with the current retention and resilience characteristics of the physical-memory devices and to redistribute data stored within the physical-memory devices across the logical address space. 
     
     
         11 . A method for storing data within a number of physical-memory devices within a device or system, the method comprising:
 associating portions of the physical-memory devices with retention and resiliency characteristics;   accessing retention and resiliency characteristics for data-storage allocations;   matching a data-storage allocation to a portion of physical memory by comparing the specified retention and resiliency characteristics of the data-storage allocation with the retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of physical-memory devices and selecting one or more portions of one or more physical-memory devices from which to allocate data storage with retention and resiliency characteristics that equal or exceed the specified retention and resiliency characteristics of the data-storage allocation.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 continuously or at regular intervals, monitoring physical-memory devices to ensure that data allocations remain consistent with the current retention and resilience characteristics of the physical-memory devices; and 
 ameliorating failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units by one or more of: 
 re-writing the deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units; 
 changing the retention characteristics associated with the memory cells and data-storage units; 
 adding or changing a resiliency method for the memory cells and data-storage units; and 
 redistributing data stored within the failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units to functional physical memory regions. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising:
 continuously, or at regular intervals, redistributing data stored within one or more of the physical-memory devices across one or more of the physical-memory devices to even the access frequency across the data-storage units within the physical-memory devices. 
 
     
     
         14 . A system that stores data in physical-memory devices, the system comprising:
 a number of physical-memory devices; and   a memory controller that
 associates retention and resiliency characteristics with portions of physical memory within one or more of the physical-memory devices, 
 accesses retention and resiliency characteristics for data stored within the physical-memory devices, 
 matches data with suitable portions of physical memory by comparing the specified retention and resiliency characteristics of the data with the retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of physical-memory devices and selecting one or more portions of one or more physical-memory devices in which to store the data; and 
 stores data in portions of physical-memory devices with retention and resiliency characteristics compatible with the specified retention and resiliency characteristics of the data. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the memory controller creates and maintains a logical address space to which the physical-memory devices and data-storage allocations are mapped, and through which mapping the memory controller matches static, dynamic, and dynamically-adjustable retention and resiliency characteristics of portions of the physical-memory devices with specified retention and resiliency characteristics specified for the data-storage allocations. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15  wherein the memory controller is one or more of:
 a discrete hardware component of a computational system; 
 a distributed system component distributed across controllers within physical-memory devices; 
 a component of an operating system; and 
 a system component implemented as stored instructions executed by one or more processors. 
 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15  wherein the logical address space is represented by:
 a sequence of data-storage units with monotonically increasing data-storage-unit addresses; 
 stored information that represents physical-memory devices and portions of physical-memory devices mapped to portions of the logical address space; and 
 stored information that represents stored-data-associated entities and data-storage allocations carried out on behalf of the stored-data-associated entities, the data-storage allocations mapped to portions of the logical address space. 
 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein the stored information that represents physical-memory devices and portions of physical-memory devices comprises:
 device attributes; 
 device retention, endurance, and access-time characteristics; 
 adjustable retention values; and 
 indications of resiliency methods. 
 
     
     
         19 . The adaptive memory system of  claim 17  wherein the stored information that represents stored-data-associated entities and data-storage allocations carried out on behalf of the stored-data-associated entities comprises:
 process identifiers; 
 file systems identified by file-system identifiers; 
 users identified by user identifiers; 
 files identified by pathnames; and 
 types of data-storage allocations and retention and resiliency characteristics associated with each of the types of data-storage allocations. 
 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 14  wherein the memory controller further:
 monitors physical-memory devices, continuously or at regular intervals, to ensure that data allocations remain consistent with the current retention and resilience characteristics of the physical-memory devices; and 
 ameliorates failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units by one or more of: 
 re-writing the deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units; 
 changing the retention characteristics associated with the memory cells and data-storage units; 
 adding or changing a resiliency method for the memory cells and data-storage units; and 
 redistributing data stored within the failed or deteriorating memory cells and data-storage units to functional physical memory regions.